Here come the jesters - 1, 2, 3

Continuing my trip back through the 1979 album charts.

25/03/79 : Desolation Angels - Bad Company

Our second visit with BC - and I'd completely forgotten the first visit, so I imagine we've got some pretty forgettable 70s rawk here.

On first listen it does feel pretty forgettable, but it also feels pretty decent and I can imagine that multiple listens (which everything got back in the day) would make it stick. There's some nice guitar work on there and Paul Rodgers' voice works well - and that's about all I've got to say about it really (so slightly less than I had to say about Bat Out Of Hell). 

We're at #15 in the chart this week on their third week of a nine week run, with it peaking at #10 in its second week. The top five this week were Barbara Streisand, Bee Gees, Blondie, Barry Manilow and Chic with the highest new entry being Supertramp (#6).

Wikipedia tells us it's their fifth album and is named after the 1965 Jack Kerouac book of the same name - and that's pretty much your lot. Looking at their entry to pad things out, they were a British "supergroup" formed of members from Free, Mott The Hoople and King Crimson. They were really popular in the US, playing huge stadiums over there, with their debut album going to #1 and later albums charting there until the early 90's - on and off, they kept things going until '23, although Wikipedia tags '08-'23 as "the reunion years". Back to the album, the critical reviews were pretty average but it did well commercially, getting to #3 in the US, selling two million copies.

discogs.com tells us that four quid will get you a decent version and the most you can spend on it is the strange sum of £30.32 for an original gatefold sleeve version. There's no danger of me revisiting this but it was a skilfully done slice of 70s rawk, so if you're in the mood for such a thing there are far worse things you could listen to. 

18/03/79 - A very decent album I never knew existed
01/04/79 - An album I have a LOT to say about

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